April 25, 2005

 

Provimi opens new state of the art plant in Brazil

 

Provimi (listed on Euronext - Paris), one of the world leaders in the animal nutrition business, today announces that it inaugurated a new premix plant in Itapira, Brazil. This plant is part of Provimi's Brazilian subsidiary Nutron, which produces premixes, specialties, aqua feed and pet food. Brazil is the third largest animal feed market in the world, after China and the United States. It showed growth of 45% over the last 5 years, which makes Brazil the world's fastest growing animal feed producer. The country's annual feed production is over 43 million metric tonnes and represents 7% of total production worldwide. Brazil is the world's number one poultry and beef exporter and among the largest pork exporters.

 

Itapira is located near Campinas, where Nutron has headquarters and near its research centre in Mogi-Mirim. Itapira allows easy access to Brazil's main highways.

 

The production capacity of vitamin and mineral premixes of the new plant in Itapira is 60 tonnes per hour, and will begin in March. This modern plant will operate under the highest quality standards (GMP and HACCP), meeting the food safety requirements of the international community. The seven Itapira plant production lines will be "animal protein free" to further enhance feed safety for the entire Brazilian animal feed business, both for domestic and for export markets.

 

Nutron is a market leader in Brazil on the basis of complete feed equivalent. The company currently employs 520 people and exports to Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia, Venezuela and Senegal. The new plant is a further step in Provimi's growth strategy in developing markets. The group will take advantage of the growing local market as well as the Brazilian export capacities.

 

 

For further information, please contact:

 

Investor relations:

 

Olivier Leduc: + (33) 1 34 82 79 04 or + (31) 10 423 95 85

Press relations:

Miriam ter Braak: + (31) 10 4 23 96 33, or mobile + (31) 6 511 23 766

 

 

The Provimi Group is active worldwide in all types of animal nutrition and is a leader in all markets where it is present. It employs over 8,000 people and has sales of over € 1.5 billion. Provimi has more than 100 production centres in 30 countries and exports to over 100. Provimi manufactures products and supplies technical support

for all species, including ruminants, poultry, swine, fish and pets.